Title 45

SECTION 708.9

708.9 Coordinating offset with another Federal agency.

§ 708.9 Coordinating offset with another Federal agency.

(a) The Commission is the creditor agency when the Deputy Staff Director determines that an employee of another Federal agency owes a delinquent debt to the Commission. The Deputy Staff Director shall, as appropriate:

(1) Arrange for a hearing upon the proper petitioning by the employee;

(2) Certify in writing that the employee of the paying agency owes the debt, the amount, and basis of the debt, the date on which payment is due, the date the Government's right to collect the debt first accrued, and that the Commission's regulations for salary offset have been approved by the Office of Personnel Management;

(3) If the collection must be made in installments, the Commission, as the creditor agency, will advise the paying agency of the amount or percentage of disposable pay to be collected in each installment and the number and the commencement date of the installments;

(4) Advise the paying agency of the actions taken under 5 U.S.C. 5514(a) and provide the dates on which action was taken, unless the employee has consented to salary offset in writing or signed a statement acknowledging receipt of procedures required by law. The written consent or acknowledgement must be sent to the paying agency;

(5) If the employee is in the process of separating, the Commission will submit its debt claim to the paying agency as provided in this part. The paying agency must certify any amounts already collected, notify the employee, and send a copy of the certification of the monies already collected and notice of the employee's separation to the Commission. If the paying agency is aware that the employee is entitled to Civil Service or Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Fund or similar payments, it must provide written notification to the agency has been rendered in favor of the Commission.

(6) If the employee has already separated and all payments due from the paying agency have been paid, the Assistant Staff Director for Management may request, unless otherwise prohibited, that money payable to the employee from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund or other similar funds be collected by administrative offset. The Commission will provide the agency responsible for these payments with a properly certified claim.

(b) The Commission is the paying agency when an employee of this agency owes a debt to another Federal agency that is the creditor agency.

(1) Upon receipt of a properly certified debt claim from a creditor agency, deductions will be scheduled to begin at the next established pay interval.

(2) The Commission must give the employee written notice that it has received a certified debt claim from a creditor agency (including the amount), and the date that deductions will be scheduled to begin and the amount of the deduction.

(3) The Commission shall not review the merits of the creditor agency's determination of the amount of the certified claim or of its validity.

(4) If the employee transfers to another paying agency after the creditor agency has submitted its debt claim but before the debt is collected completely, the Commission must certify the total amount collected to the creditor agency with notice of the employee's transfer. One copy of this certification must be furnished to the employee. The creditor agency will submit a properly certified claim to the new paying agency before collection can be resumed.

(5) When the Commission, as a paying agency, receives an incomplete debt claim from a creditor agency, it must return the debt claim with a notice that procedures under 5 U.S.C. 5514 and this subpart must be provided and a properly certified debt claim received before action will be taken to collect from the employee's current pay account.